The developed world must do all it can to provide aid and resources to countries being destroyed by the AIDS epidemic, Stephen Lewis, Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, implored an overcrowded Harris Hall auditorium Thursday night.
“When one part of the world is being over-sieged, those of us who have the means must respond, ” Lewis said. “I beg you collectively to not allow (the epidemic) to continue.”
Lewis, a former deputy executive director of UNICEF, is the U.N. special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. Since 2001, Lewis has worked to raise AIDS awareness and to pressure nations to battle the pandemic by providing aid.
Lewis’ speech is part of the student-organized Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights held April 28-30. The conference focuses on U.S. policy toward HIV/AIDS in Third World countries. It will also feature Nobel Prize-winner Bernard Kouchner, president and founder of Doctors Without Borders, as its keynote speaker Friday at 8 p.m. in Fisk Hall, room 217.
Lewis began his speech by asking students to realize that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is by no means controlled and that it contributes to violations of human rights in Africa. Even Western countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, are not completely immune, he said.
“I beg you all to recognize that what is happening in the world of AIDS is a historical precedent,” Lewis said. “But in Africa, the epicenter, (AIDS) is just terrifying. It violates absolutely every conceivable right there is for those who are both affected and infected. “
Lewis, who considers himself a feminist, noted that African women’s rights are constantly violated by the patriarchal society in which they live. Gender discrimination and outright violations of human rights, such as female genital mutilation and rape, are largely responsible for the high rates of HIV/AIDS among African women between ages 15 and 45, he said.
“Absence of equality is what allows this virus to move so ruthlessly throughout the population.” he said. “A young woman does not have the capacity to demand safe sex, to tell the man to wear a condom or to avoid being abused by a sexual predator.”
Lewis also admonished the international community for not taking action to exterminate gender discrimination in Africa and for not providing more aid to children who become orphans because of AIDS. He criticized the lack of AIDS medication for children, the school fees that discourage students from attaining an education and the hunger that attacks African children.
“It’s an abomination that we’ve allowed children to be abandoned in this fashion,” he said. “These struggles speak very strongly to HIV because many of these kids are orphans to AIDS.”
But Lewis also gave students hope for the future, citing the development of a microbiocide that can allow women to stop the transmission of HIV during sex. He also commended the young people who are in the “front lines” fighting the epidemic in Africa and encouraged his audience to do the same.
During the question-and-answer period, Lewis said the international community needs to equally emphasize treatment of the disease, education and empowerment of women in order to successfully combat the epidemic.
“We should not spend too much time emphasizing just education or prevention or treatment because to Africans, these are inseparable,” he said.
Many students said Lewis’ speech was very powerful and persuasive in urging them to help combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“The things he said were very heartfelt and simple, but they did a lot for the people there,” said Weinberg freshman Ja Whi. “He was insightful and eye-opening. He did a good job of instilling urgency and compassion for the world let us know that we can do something about (the HIV/AIDS pandemic).”
Reach Allan Madrid at [email protected].
